Your brain getting old?

James24 January 2005

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A study from researchers in Chicago, published in November, gives us yet more reason to find answers rather than just put up with pain. The study was done with patients who were dealing with chronic back pain. The researchers compared the brain’s grey matter in patients with back pain to a control group, and discovered that the patients with pain had 5-11% less grey matter volume.

What does that mean, exactly? Basically, it’s as if their brains were aging faster. 5-11% less neocortical gray matter volume is like 10-20 years of normal aging. Why this is happening is not fully understood, but it provides yet another reason to fight back against pain of all kinds, especially recurring and chronic pain. For more on this topic, visit our home page and related articles. Read the abstract from this study here.